


looking where the light pours in

by LailaLiquorice



Series: loved so very deeply by a chosen few [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jane is the ultimate mum friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 09:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: When not even the might of Catherine of Aragon can stand up alone against the flu.





	looking where the light pours in

A full week of eight shows was usually enough to make the girls feel exhausted. The Saturday evening performance was always the one they went all out for, putting everything they had left into the final performance before their deserved day of rest. Some Saturdays would find them all heading down to the pub for a drink after the show before the headed home and this was one of them, all six of them pulling up stray stools to crowd around a tiny table in the hectic pub.

Aragon usually looked forward to their pub trips, a great way to celebrate a week well done together since their Sundays were usually spent alone recovering in their own ways. Most of the girls didn’t emerge from their rooms until at least midday, with Parr usually holed up in her study-turned-bedroom catching up on six days’ worth of bookmarked research until someone fetched her for dinner. Only Jane and Aragon were ever up early on a Sunday, with Jane making the most of the quiet to busy herself with housework while Aragon went to the Mass service at the local Church. Sundays were sacred for all of them – just the way they were meant to be.

But today, crammed in between Jane and Parr with a glass of wine untouched in front of her, Aragon just wanted to be in her bed. The final show had been more of a challenge than usual to the point where she’d needed a few minutes in her dressing room chair before she could even summon the energy to change out of her costume. The background chatter in the pub had blurred into a constant hum, and she didn’t realise that the voices of her friends had faded out too until she felt someone’s hand shaking her shoulder.

“Are you still with us?” Jane asked, and Aragon looked round slowly as she world came back into focus.

Thankfully it seemed to be just Jane who had noticed her space out; Anne and Anna were eyeing up the group of men at the bar with their typical lack of subtlety, while Kat and Parr were discussing the book series they’d both embarked on recently. Aragon gave a curt nod, picking up her wine glass though she made no move to drink it. “I'm fine. Just a little tired, you know how the end of the week is,” she said.

Jane hummed in agreement, though she looked far from convinced.

To her relief it wasn’t long later that Parr suggested they call it a night, nudging Kat’s shoulder as she yawned widely. “I don’t think little’un here will last much longer,” she joked, smiling in the face of Kat’s frown of betrayal.

“You going to drink that?” Anne asked, and it took a moment for Aragon to realise she was talking to her. She’d hardly shaken her head when Anne grabbed the glass and downed it in one.

Jane tutted loudly, half serious and half teasing, but Anne just grinned at her as she shrugged. “What? It was going to go to waste otherwise!”

“Come on you lot, let’s get going,” Anna butted in before Jane could reprimand her properly, and Aragon was all too happy to leave the claustrophobic pub behind and begin the short walk home.

As she crashed into her bed after taking her makeup off, Aragon was confident that she had just been overly tired and would be back to normal in time for Church in the morning. That hope was dashed, however, when she woke up with a stabbing headache and the feeling that her limbs were made of lead. With a pained groan and a great deal of effort she rolled over to check the time on her phone, panic piercing through the fog in her brain as she realised she’d forgotten to set an alarm the previous night. Unless the left the house in under five minutes she was going to be late for Mass.

Through either unstoppable determination or divine intervention she managed to pull on the same clothes she’d worn to the pub and tie a scrunchie around her hair, but both of those things seemed to desert her once she was in the kitchen. With no time for her usual breakfast she’d planned to steal one of Anne’s oatmeal bars to eat while she was walking, but was stopped in her tracks by a sudden coughing fit that took her by surprise and left her bracing herself on the kitchen counter.

She faintly heard footsteps and her name being called beneath the sound of herself coughing, before someone was rubbing her back. “Easy now Catherine, take a deep breath,” Jane was saying, her voice firm enough that Aragon attempts to follow her instruction without really thinking about it.

As soon as she could breathe enough to form words again, Aragon shook her head. “Got to- got to go, going to be late –“

“You’re not well love, no-one will blame you for missing one week,” Jane said with a sympathetic shake of her head.

Aragon tried to protest for a moment longer before the fight left her, replaced by hollow exhaustion as her head continued to pound. “Ok,” she whispered.

Jane squeezed her shoulder gently. “There we go. Let’s get you sat down and I’ll fetch you a glass of water.”

Nodding ever so slightly so as not to make her headache worse, Aragon let Jane take her by the hand and lead her into the living room. Sitting heavily on the nearest sofa, she heard Jane say something quietly that she didn’t catch before she disappeared back into the kitchen, returning a minute later with a glass of water and some painkillers. After taking the medicine with a few sips of water she felt Jane’s hand on her forehead, and it was a struggle not to lean into her blissfully cool palm.

“I think you might have flu, love, you’ve certainly got a high fever,” Jane said, sitting down next to her. “You were feeling bad last night too, weren’t you?”

Aragon gave another tiny nod, eyes falling closed in an attempt to conserve what little energy she had left. “I thought I was just tired. Didn’t realise anything was wrong,” she muttered quietly, already wishing she’d never left her bed.

Seeming to sense this, Jane let out a pitying sigh as she asked “Why don’t you sleep down here for a little while?” Aragon was about to protest before Jane added “You’ve got a few hours before anyone else comes downstairs. I’ll wake you up if I hear someone stirring.”

That was enough for Aragon to nod tiredly in agreement, exhaustion winning over her dislike of the thought that anyone else had to see her like that.

Jane helped her lie down slowly, arranging a cushion beneath her head in place of a pillow. “I’ll fetch you a blanket,” she said, hurrying off again to reappear with one of the blankets that they used for movie nights. “Water’s on the coffee table behind you, and I’ll see if we’ve got any lemsip for when you wake up. If not then one of the girls can do a pharmacy run a little later.”

Aragon hummed in quiet thanks. It was more than likely that they did have cold medicine in the medicine cabinet already, since Jane liked to keep it well stocked in case someone needed anything last minute before a show. There were enough plasters for an army in there along with countless throat lozenges as backup for the packet that Jane insisted they each keep in their makeup boxes for the show, plus a supply of energy tablets for Parr which were on the top shelf so that Anne couldn’t reach them.

“Try and get some rest, ok?” Jane’s voice pulled Aragon back from where she was already losing the fight for consciousness. “And let me know if you need anything. I’ll just be in the kitchen.”

There was no response this time, and Jane smiled fondly as Aragon finally gave in to sleep. Treading lightly, she carefully closed the living room door to make sure that nothing or no-one could disturb her. The fact that Aragon had let down her walls enough for Jane to be allowed to help her was a testament to how ill she really was feeling, so she’d make sure she got plenty of rest. Even if that meant fighting the uphill battle that was keeping the rest of the girls quiet and Anne from being within a 50 foot radius of the living room altogether.

As she’d predicted, there was quiet in the house until around 2 in the afternoon when the first signs of activity sounded from upstairs. Jane paused from where she’d been reading a trashy magazine – her one guilty pleasure – to glance towards the living room door, considering waking Aragon up as she’d promised. But after looking in to see her still fast asleep, she quickly decided against it.

“Mornin’ Jane,” sounded Anne’s yell as she stomped down the stairs.

Jane jumped at the sudden voice, accidentally slamming the living room door instead of closing it softly as she’d intended. With a sigh, she covered her eyes in quiet despair before looking over at a confused Anne. “Morning love. Catherine’s not feeling well so she’s taking a nap on the sofa – or she was, I doubt she’s still asleep after that,” she corrected herself.

Anne nodded, making something of an effort to treat a little quieter down the rest of the stairs. “Got it. Must be bad to bring Aragon down, thought something wasn’t right when I drank her wine without getting murdered last night.”

“I think it might be the flu,” Jane said, making Anne wince in sympathy.

“Ooh, nasty. Want someone to sit in with her if she’s awake? I know you like to be busy on Sundays.”

Jane hesitated. She knew that Aragon was likely to protest anyone being with her while she wasn’t feeling her best, but she didn’t want her to suffer alone and there was a look of genuine concern on Anne’s face. “Go in and see what she says, but leave her alone if she’s still sleeping or doesn’t want anyone there,” she said after a moment’s thought, opening the door again before embarking on the search for cold medicine.

Aragon had indeed been woken by the door slamming, but her mind was groggy enough that she didn’t really register anything until she heard an enquiring “Hey?” in the voice she least wanted to hear.

“What do you want?” she attempted to growl, but her painful throat made it little more than a pitiful rasp. She and Anne had managed to overlook most of their hostility by then, but irritation at being woken up and wariness at being seen looking weak had all her defences back up.

Anne held up her hands in surrender, not moving any closer from her position in the doorway. “Just seeing if you wanted company. I know I wouldn’t want to be alone if it was me feeling like death.”

Aragon closed her eyes, too tired to protest. “Whatever. Just don’t make noise and let me sleep.”

“You got it,” Anne said, and Aragon knew without looking that she was doing finger guns at her.

Quiet fell once more, with Aragon finding that she didn’t mind Anne’s presence as much as she thought she would. It was an odd feeling, letting someone in the same room as her while she was half-passed out on the sofa, but it was easy enough to forget in the wake of her lingering tiredness. There was one thing she didn’t understand though. After several minutes of silence punctuated only by the odd quiet snort of stifled laughter as Anne presumably scrolled through her social media, Aragon cleared her throat before speaking. “Boleyn?”

“Yeah?”

“Why?”

She cracked open her eyes to see Anne sat in the armchair that Aragon herself usually occupied, still in her baggy t-shirt and sleep shorts with one leg up on the arm of the chair and the other dangling on the floor. After glancing at Aragon in confusion for a moment, she shrugged before looking back at her phone. “Just ‘cause. I’m not always a greenie meanie.”

Aragon couldn’t help her quiet huff of amusement. But in the presence of Anne’s rarely seen softer side, she had to admit it was true.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in a series which will involve all six girls receiving some well-earned comfort from each other. Hurt/comfort is my absolute jam so when I got the idea of doing this I absolutely had to. Loved SiX and the cast for ages now and saw it in London last month (and met Jaye'J who was an angel) and now exams are over I can finally Write a Thing.
> 
> Aragon's usually portrayed as such an uptight character so this was fun. Boleyn is my favourite chaotic gremlin with a definite softer side. Jane is best mum. Looking forward to writing more of this!
> 
> I'm lailaliquorice on tumblr :)


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